Do you believe in Jeremy Hill?

Cincinnati Bengals running back Jeremy Hill (32) finds running room in the second quarter during the Week 3 NFL football game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Green Bay Packers, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2017, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo: Kareem Elgazzar)

Joe Mixon gets the cheers, the frenetic whoops and claps of a training camp crowd when he finishes off a drill by running to the end zone, high fiving fans on his way back to the team. Giovani Bernard gets the deep breaths, the elongated “oh’s” for his stop-starts and bursts through the hole.

“You’re 230 pounds! Run him over!”

That’s what Jeremy Hill gets. From a teammate.

It’s been a different kind of training camp for the fourth-year running back, one of the National Football League’s most prolific touchdown makers and one-time darling of the Cincinnati Bengals backfield.

Now, the 24-year-old is at a crossroads.

A hard reality

Weeks had passed since the end of the team’s worst season in seven years. Everyone on the offense was getting a hard look. In his third year, Hill averaged 3.8 yards per carry on his 222 attempts. The year before, 3.6 over 223 carries.

It was two years of methodical production and quite the departure from the 5.1 yards per rush on 222 carries in Hill’s breakout rookie campaign of 2014.

“I see a lot more for him. A lot more. But he’s got to do it,” Zampese said in late January. “Disciplined run courses. Trust in the line. Breaking tackles. Those things. I see a very bright future for him. But we can’t go into the season thinking he’s the only guy we’re giving it to either. We have to have some contingency plans.

"3.8 is not good enough, two years in a row. So there are some bottom line things. There are realities. And we’re there now.”

Once Rex Burkhead bolted to New England in free agency, the club made it known they were going to draft a running back in April. Hill knew it was coming.

“When I got drafted there wasn’t something in my contract that said hey Jeremy, you’re going to be the only running back we put on our roster,” Hill said. “That comes with the territory.”

The back ended up being Joe Mixon, a player cut from the nearly the same physical mold (6-1, 228) as Hill (6-1, 235) but with a more accomplished collegiate track record of catching the ball, and Bernard-like quickness.

Naturally, all of the microphones, television cameras and digital recorders found Hill at his locker after the draft. And as he always is, Hill was there to answer questions about the rookie who many outside the organization were ready to crown as the new starter.

Hill was one of the first Bengals to reach out to Mixon after draft night and laughs at the idea that it was a difficult time for him.

“Taking Joe was a big addition for our offense as a team,” Hill told The Enquirer in an extended sit down inside Paul Brown Stadium. “As players, people assume that we’re selfish people, but I’ve always been a team guy and with team success, personal success follows. The better our team does, the better it is for everyone. Him helping our team doesn’t phase me at all and questions about it doesn’t phase me at all. We’ve done everything we can to help Joe and bring him along and make sure he’s a big piece and an integral piece of our offense. I’m not worried about that stuff. I have all the confidence in the world in myself and my ability.

“It’s just going out there and proving it and doing it again.”

His coaches feel he can do that.

Zampese may have been blunt in his evaluation of Hill and the running back room, but he doesn’t doubt the explosive runner of 2014 is still within the running back.

“No question to me,” the second-year offensive coordinator said. “But that will come between his ears. I have confidence that he’s going to do that. Because he doesn’t want to gain 3.8. But we need to get a consistency that we haven’t had in a moment.”

Fast forward six months, after individual and team workouts and the start of training camp. That belief remains.

“I’m the eternal optimist – I think there is better in there,” running backs coach Kyle Caskey said. “I’ve seen things in practice and I’ve seen things in our offseason work that have led me to believe that the Jeremy Hill that’s going to show up this year is going to be the Jeremy Hill that everybody wants to be on this team, and he wants him to be. We’ll see as it goes along.”

As for that lack of consistency for Hill in 2016, head Marvin Lewis provided a bit of a mea culpa.

Like many coaches, Lewis despises talking about injuries and their impact – but he looks back on the last season with a bit of regret. Hill severely injured a shoulder in Week 4 against Miami on Sept. 29 but he didn’t miss a game. He clearly wasn’t right, however. In the nine contests following that Miami game against teams other than Cleveland, Hill ran for just 339 yards on 130 attempts, a 2.6 average per rush.

Jeremy Hill dealt with a painful shoulder injury through most of 2016.(Photo: Sam Greene)

“He sucked it up for us and played when he was injured and maybe we hurt him a little bit, set him back a little bit that way,” Lewis said. “Because he had an injury that when he took shots on it, it hurt, and you had to hurt for him because we knew the pain he was in.”

Given several opportunities to use the shoulder (and later in the year, a knee) to toss his problems at his injuries, Hill refused. He played, so he had to perform. He also referenced how elite running backs in the league make people miss, and break tackles – even noting Burkhead’s impressive season-ending performance in that area last year. No thoughts about the offensive line or play calls, either.

“I’ll never be that guy,” he said. “I just didn’t get it done.”

In the end, that is the crux of where he’s at in this training camp. It’s one of the reasons Mixon was drafted. Or that Tra Carson is getting an extended look with Cedric Peerman out with a hamstring injury.

In 2017, it’s about production. Mixon has impressed thus far. Bernard is healthy.

There is no room for 3.8.

“He knows that there is some fire behind him and he knows how talented that room is and he’s really taken that to heart,” Caskey said. “I don’t think he’s taking this camp any differently than he’s taking the other ones but honestly, there’s some people behind him right now that are chipping at his heels. And he knows that.

"But he’s also still the starter, so the biggest thing is come in here and have the confidence of a starter and have the ability to do everything we ask him to do at a high level so we can leave him in that position."

The time is now

Jeremy Hill knows he is competing for playing time in 2017.(Photo: Kareem Elgazzar)

Hill sees what you see.

The long runs in 2014, the speed and extra yards. He sees the fumble that helped end the 2015 season early. The ineffective runs of 2016.

But he believes.

“I can always get back to that,” he said of that star-in-the-making wearing No. 32 from three seasons ago. “I feel that way now. I feel I had a great OTAs and training camp is coming along fine right now. It’s really just keeping my body in the best possible happened staying healthy and I think I can definitely achieve that. The knowledge I’ve attained over the years, experience I’ve attained, you can’t teach that or you can’t put that in about.

“I’m excited, man. I’ve put the work in.”

And he sees what you see, regarding what his teammates in the backfield are showing in camp.

Almost like a rookie with everything to prove and everything in front of him, the preseason looms large.

“Every time you step on that field you’ve got to re-prove yourself,” Hill said. “That’s what it is. Then also competing with the guys in our room. I can’t take a day off or take a rep off or take a play off. Everyone is watching. Guys are seeing what’s going on out there. As far as that, I’ve got to re-prove myself and the preseason is a perfect opportunity to do that.”

It will be his best opportunities, and back on the biggest stage. Because the work, the proof, to this point is coming in in a quieter setting thus far in camp. He remains popular with the fans, but others get cheered and beckoned a bit louder. The interview requests are a bit more sporadic.

“His 2015 season got mared for the fumbles and 2016, you know, it was what it was,” Lewis said. “Now, it’s all part of your history. But now you get a chance to change it and make it part of your future.

“I’m excited for him. He’s a prideful young man that’s got a lot to do, a lot to prove and a lot of ability. He’s worked very hard this offseason and the proof comes in the pudding just to stay on point, stay on his tracks, stay consistent.”

Hill is proud of the fact that he didn’t lose a fumble in 2016, that he met that goal, but he knows that must continue into this year along with getting past “3.8.” Caskey feels the same way – it’s another talking point the running back seeks to quiet forever.

“The yards per carry, for me this year, is something I really want to focus. That’s what it is,” Hill said pointedly. “I want to do that. If I do that I think everything else will fall in place. I think that’s been the question the past two seasons. I think I’ve done other things well, short yardage, scoring touchdowns, things like that, but the yards per carry definitely needs to increase. That’s something I’m going focus on this year and try and increase.”